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8 thoughts on “Full List of Posts”

Hi, thanks for all the great memories of ICHs. With reference to the clocks, there were clocks in all the classrooms. They were linked to a master clock in the headmasters office so that all displayed the same time.

I’m amazed at how comprehensive you have been in covering the 50s and 60s. You do not, however, as far as I can see, say much about BBC Radio (Perhaps I’ve missed a post or two or perhaps you will cover it later). I’m especially interested in the BBC Radio sci-fi series Journey Into Space. I have fairly vivid memories of the show, plus lots of material exists online, even some extensive original material although perhaps the first very first shows were lost. Of course Wikipedia has a good write-up of Journey Into Space; however, sometimes I’m a bit wary of allowing Wikipedia to influence my personal memories too much.

Fascinating read, Alan. Came across your site when trying to research where we sat the Eleven Plus exam in 1952. thought it was somewhere around Balfour Road. I attended Downshall Infants and Juniors and then went to Beal Grammar. Lived in Wards Road off Ley Street. Also trying to recall the name of a large factory off Ley St heading towards Ilford . there was a massive iron bridge over the railway lines which was a short cut to Ilford High St. Was it Plesseys do you know? I worked in their drawing office for a short while on Eastern Avenue at Green Gate. Been back twice [now in New Zealand]

Regarding televised football. I remember that the second half of the 1954 World Cup final between West Germany and Hungary was televised from Switzerland. I was ten then. My parents were horrified that I wanted the Germans to win. (They were 0-2 down at half time and won 3-2.)
That year the entire FA Cup Final (Preston v. West Bromwich Albion) and probably the Blackpool v. Bolton game the year before, were also televised, as was the game that made me a Wolves supporter, Honved (Hungary) v. Wolves, televised one evening in 1954. I used to wear a Wolves pin but the day I added a second one Pinhead made me take them both off.
The Amateur Cup Final from Wembley was televised in 1954 (Bishop Auckland v. Crook Town).
Extra time was playable in the replay of a cup tie and subsequently. Important changes in the rules included the “no pass back to the goalkeeper for him to pick up the ball”, no substitute was ever allowed in League or cup ties, even for a player with a broken leg (Notts Forest v Luton Cup Final, 1959). The passion at a Cup Final was tremendous. I never got a ticket for one, but you could feel it just watching the pre-match preamble and community singing at the ground.
As a passionate Wolves supporter at ICHS, life could be very difficult when almost everybody else was a Tottenham fan. My father took me to the Spurs v Wolves game at White Hart Lane in November 1955. Wolves lost 1-2 and I cried all the way home, not because we had lost but because I knew what awaited me at ICHS on the Monday.